FRANCES-ANNE
SOLOMON BRINGS A WINTER TALE INTO FOCUS
First the play – now the film!
Art
Imitates Life in a Timely and Gripping Toronto Story
Shots
ring out on a winter night. A stray bullet meant for a
local street dealer kills a nine year-old boy. So begins
A Winter Tale, a new independent feature-length film written
and directed by Frances-Anne Solomon, and produced by
Solomon’s company Leda Serene Films. It will be
shot on location in Toronto’s Parkdale neighborhood,
and released in 2006.
Solomon’s
latest project A Winter Tale is a shockingly
timely Toronto story in which six men meet at Miss G’s
Caribbean Takeaway Restaurant, while grief, despair and
suspicion cloud the air and stalk the cold dark streets
outside. They tentatively agree to form a Black Men's
Support Group in the hope that this might lead to their
own salvation and to the redemption of their community
under siege.
“This film looks with sensitivity
and insight at the issues surrounding the escalating gun
violence on our streets,” says Solomon. “In
developing the characters and stories for A Winter Tale,
each of us brought his or her own life experiences to
the story. That gives it authenticity and immediacy, and
grounds it in the reality of Toronto life.”
A Winter Tale stars Peter Williams, Leonie
Forbes, Michael Miller, Peter Bailey, Dennis “Sprangalang”Hall,
R.O. Glasgow, P. Barrington, Ryan Ishmael, Lucky Ejim,
Mike G. Yohannes, Shakura S’aida, Valerie Buhagiar,
and young Sabio Emerencia-Collins. The Director of Photography
is Kim Derko, and the Editor is Michelle Francis.
Solomon’s other work includes Lord
Have Mercy – Canada’s first multicultural
sitcom, and Literature Alive!, an innovative series of
point-of-view docs profiling Caribbean Canadian Authors.
The script for a Winter Tale was developed through a collaborative
workshop process over two years, and recently had an amazingly
successful run as a theatre play at Toronto’s Alchemy
Theatre and Parkdale’s Mazaryk Cowan Community Center.
Toronto Sun’s Sherri Woods had this to say, “A
Winter Tale takes a raw, brave approach ... filled with
crime and confusion, desperation and gunshots--and the
brutal truth.”
The film is funded by CHUM Television
and the Telefilm Low Budget Feature Film Fund.
Please see press kit for more information
and photos, or visit www.ledaserene.com for more information.
ABOUT
THE DIRECTOR
Filmmaker, producer and writer Frances-Anne Solomon studied
Theatre Arts at the University of Toronto before moving
to Great Britain where she launched her company, Leda
Serene Films, so that she could develop and direct her
own films. In 1999 she returned to Toronto where she continues
to create direct and produce film /TV projects. Most recently,
she created Literature Alive, a unique multimedia project,
that explores Caribbean Canadian fiction through an innovative
series of documentaries, audio books, radio programmes,
and an educational website. In 2003, she was responsible
for the groundbreaking sitcom Lord Have Mercy! that was
broadcast on four Canadian networks and nominated for
two Geminis. In 2002, she established Caribbean Tales,
an multimedia company that celebrates the rich tradition
of Caribbean-heritage storytelling. Frances-Anne's other
directing credits include Peggy Su! (BBC Films 1997),
What My Mother Told Me (Channel 4 1995), Bideshi (British
Film Institute 1994), and Valentine's Night (BBC 1993)
as well as documentaries Reunion (BBC, 1993), and I Is
A Long Memoried Woman (Arts Council of England 1991).
While in the UK she also worked with BBC Single Drama
& Films as a Script Editor, Producer and Executive
Producer and was responsible for several films and TV
movies, including the Black Screen strand (for black writers,
producers and directors) and Screen on the Tube (for new
feature directors). Here, her productions included Speak
Like A Child, director John Akomfrah; Love Is The Devil,
director John Maybury; The Sixth Happiness, director Waris
Hossein; Flight, director Alex Pillai; and Siren Spirits,
directors Ngozi Onwurah, Pratibha Parmar and Dani Williamson.
Before this she worked at BBC Radio as a Drama Producer/Director,
responsible for some 35 productions.
ABOUT LEDA SERENE FILMS
Leda Serene Films is a film, television and new media
production company based in Toronto, Canada. The Company
produces an impressive range of award-winning programs—from
high quality dramas and documentaries to more innovative
multi-media projects—and is dedicated to placing
people of colour in front of, as well as behind, the camera
and to celebrating the diversity of strong personal stories
from different cultural perspectives in the global diaspora.
